Streak takes aim at Australia's old-timers

Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak has fired a shot at the Australian team ahead of the one-day tri-series, saying it is an ageing side in need of new blood.

Streak said selectors made a wise decision to pick plenty of youngsters in the Australia A squad to play Zimbabwe in a day-nighter at Adelaide Oval today, as the senior side needed an injection of youth.

"When you look at the Australian team, they're not the youngest now; some of them are getting a bit long in the tooth," Streak said in Adelaide.

"Someone told me that the Australian bowls team is a younger average age than the cricket team. I don't know how true that is, but it's good for them to have a look at the youngsters."

Zimbabwe will be without experienced batsman Craig Wishart for today's match after he twisted his left knee while batting in the loss to Western Australia on Sunday.

Streak said Wishart had cartilage damage, but Zimbabwe was holding a slim hope he would miss only one match of the tri-series, against Australia in Sydney on Sunday.

"For us, as such a small playing nation, it's harder for us to lose quality players like Craig," Streak said. "It's a big loss, but an opportunity for one of the other guys to stake a claim."

Zimbabwe beat Australia A by eight runs in their previous match at the WACA Ground last week, with Zimbabwe's pacemen dominating the Australia A top order.

At one stage of the match, Australia A was 6-66 in reply to Zimbabwe's 240 before Shaun Marsh led a late-order fightback that threatened to steal the game.

Australia A captain and Australian one-day batsman Michael Clarke said the top-order batsmen, himself included, needed to do better today.

"Our biggest downfall was that nobody in the top six scored runs," Clarke said. "You have to be positive, and I think we still came very close to winning the game."